Crude oil prices down in afternoon trade

Crude oil prices were lower in afternoon trade Thursday after the US Labor Department said that first time unemployment claims fell last week but warned that the declines had more to do with difficulties adjusting for auto industry layoffs than with any significant improvement in conditions.

August contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were 70 cents lower to $60.84 per barrel at just past 1:30 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude had dropped 28 cents to $62.81 per barrel at last report on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex August gasoline futures were 6 cents higher to $1.71 per gallon while September heating oil added 7 cents to $1.62 per gallon and September natural gas gained 9 cents to $3.53 per million British thermal units.

The gains for natural gas futures came even though the US Energy Information Administration reported that inventories last week were up to 2.89 trillion cubic feet because stockpile gains were in the low range of expected advances.

Retail gasoline prices were down 1.2 cents overnight to $2.492 per gallon on average in the United States and have now dropped 18.2 cents in the past month, and are $1.62 lower than they were last year at this time.